Rhode Island Charter Public Schools: Lottery & Enrollment Guidance

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Rhode Island Charter Public Schools:

Lottery & Enrollment Guidance

Office of Charter Schools

Rhode Island Department of Education

OFFICE OF CHARTER SCHOOLS |RIDE│255 WESTMINSTER STREET │SIXTH FLOOR │PROVIDENCE,RI02903 CONTACT:DREW ALLSOPP,CHARTER SCHOOL COORDINATOR

P:401-222-8255

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Introduction

State and federal statutes and regulations govern how students enroll into charter public schools. In general, charter schools must accept any age-eligible applicant residing in an enrolling community, regardless of background, need, individual characteristic, or prior performance. In cases where more applicants apply than there are open seats in the school, charter schools must conduct enrollment lotteries to determine which students shall be admitted.1

In 2010 the Rhode Island General Assembly made substantial amendments to the “Charter Public School Act of Rhode Island” (the “Act”). These amendments require that outreach and recruitment programs encourage the enrollment of a diverse student population. Additionally, in April of 2011, the Board of Regents promulgated “Regulations Governing Rhode Island Public Charter Schools.” Chapter 5 of the Regulations, entitled “Charter School Outreach and Enrollment,” includes specific requirements related to outreach, lotteries, notification, and waiting lists.

In February of 2014, RIDE issues this “Lottery & Enrollment Guidance” to clarify issues related to lotteries and enrollment that have arisen among directors and operators of Rhode Island’s charter schools, including:  Outreach requirements  Application forms  Lotteries  Enrollment procedures  Invalid applications

This guidance provides RIDE’s interpretation of various statutory and regulatory provisions, and explains how Rhode Island’s charter schools may operate in conformity with the Charter Schools Act and

applicable Board of Regents Regulations. It does not intend to impose any requirements beyond those included in applicable federal and state laws and regulations.

Please note that this guidance does not attempt to set forth all of the actions needed to comply with the Act and the Board of Regents Regulations or other requirements of state and federal law, nor does this guidance create or confer any rights for or on any person.

This guidance supersedes and replaces any and all guidance provided in the past by the Rhode Island Department of Education relating to charter school lotteries and enrollment in Rhode Island.

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I. Outreach & Recruitment

All charter schools must proactively inform sending communities about the school for the purpose of generating interest in attending the school. By law, charter schools are required to establish policies that outline outreach and recruitment programs; these programs must encourage the enrollment of a

diverse student population2. Outreach policies should include multiple approaches to recruitment that notify the entire enrolling community, including families that may be hard to reach. Methods may include public notices, open houses, coordination with other schools, community meetings, visits to community centers, web-based notifications and portals, mailings, and door knocking.

II. Enrollment Applications

To apply for enrollment into a charter school, prospective students must complete an application. The Office of Charter Schools has developed a standard student enrollment application that must be used by all charter schools3. The application is provided to schools in three languages: English, Spanish and Portuguese. A charter school may request additional translations from RIDE if required to reach all students in an enrolling community.

While most of the application must remain standardized, schools may reformat the application in designated areas to include the school’s logo, school address, submission deadline, and submission instructions.

Electronic Format

Charter schools may convert the standard enrollment application into an electronic/online form for the convenience of applicants. In the process of converting the application, all questions should be inserted verbatim onto online forms. Online forms should not request more, less, or different information from that requested on the standard, paper-based form used by the school. Applicant signatures may be collected via an industry-standard electronic equivalent.

Requesting Additional Information from Applicants

According to Rhode Island law, charter schools are intended to “increase learning opportunities for all pupils, with special emphasis on expanding learning experiences for students who are identified as educationally disadvantaged or at-risk.”4 To ensure this goal is met, a charter school may be permitted to add one or more questions to the standard enrollment application but only in cases where:

 The response generated is allowable as enrollment criteria under state or federal law and regulation; and

 The question is designed to yield information about an applicant’s status as a disadvantaged or at-risk student in order to increase her opportunity to enroll via an approved lottery weight or preference; and

 The specific question(s) to be included has been approved by RIDE; and

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RIGL § 16-77.2-2(10), 16-77.3-2(10), 16-77.4-2(10); Board of Regents Regulation C-5-1.

3_{Board of Regents Regulation C-5-2} 4_{RIGL § 16-77-3.1(2)}

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 Answering the question is optional. In other words, applicants may not be disqualified or otherwise removed from the lottery because they elect not to answer the additional question. Requests for review and approval of additional application questions shall be made in the form of a letter to the Office of Charter Schools, and shall include:

 the proposed question(s) to include on the application

 a rationale for including the proposed question

For example, a rationale might state that a charter school desires to ensure enrollment of low-income students by providing two chances in the lottery for students eligible for free and reduced lunch and one chance for students not eligible. The request to add a question regarding free/reduced lunch status would be justified. The question and rationale must align around a specific and verifiable attribute of students.

For the purpose of this guidance, educationally disadvantaged students are students in the categories described in section 1115(b)(2) of the ESEA, which include students who are economically

disadvantaged, students with disabilities, migrant students, limited English proficient students, neglected or delinquent students, and homeless students. Questions regarding an applicant’s race or gender will not be permitted.

Beyond the RIDE-approved enrollment application, no additional information may be requested from applicants at the point of application.

III. Enrollment Procedures

By statute, charter schools must describe their enrollment procedures.5 These policies and procedures should be written and approved by the charter school’s board. The procedures should include detailed explanations of each step in the student selection process, from lottery through enrollment. A charter school’s enrollment procedures should explain the following:

Lottery Procedures The procedures, format, and methodology for running the school’s enrollment lottery

Lottery Exemptions applicants that are enrolled prior to, or outside of, the lottery Weights/Preferences applicants that receive additional opportunities in the lottery Application Validity the criteria, consequences, and communication for applicants who

have submitted applications that are deemed incomplete or invalid Waiting Lists how the school will maintain its waiting list

Notification how the school notifies applicants of acceptance status

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6 Backfilling how the school will respond to a vacancy after a student voluntarily

elects to leave the charter school for another school Enrollment how the school enrolls students into the school Guidance on each of these steps is provided in the pages that follow.

Lottery Procedures

Lottery Format and Methodology

Lotteries may be conducted in a variety of ways, so long as the result is a fair and open enrollment process for all applicants. Charter schools should describe the lottery format used (e.g. using name cards in a bingo drum, in an Excel workbook), the methodology used to run the lottery, the process by which the lottery is checked and verified for accuracy, and whether the lottery is open to the public. The procedures should be published and accessible to parents and other stakeholders who wish to understand how the charter school enrolls its students.

Oversight

Establishing and implementing a fair enrollment process that conforms to all legal requirements is a condition for charter renewal. The Office of Charter Schools may audit lottery procedures at any time during the charter term(s). To facilitate these audits, schools must retain all enrollment applications, lottery materials, and other supporting documentation and make these documents available to Office of Charter Schools staff upon request.

Lottery Date

Board of Regents Regulations provide the Commissioner with the authority to set a uniform date for Rhode Island’s charter school lotteries6. A common lottery date ensures that charter school enrollment estimates can be shared with RIDE’s Office of Finance, school district business managers, and charter school business managers, to enable planning for charter school enrollment in the upcoming school year. It also simplifies the lottery and enrollment process for families.

The current date set by the Commissioner for charter school lotteries is March 1 of the year prior to the enrolling school year. Schools should hold their lotteries on March 1 or, if March 1 falls on a weekend, the Monday immediately following March 1.

Charter schools should set a submission deadline for applications in advance of the lottery. RIDE recommends that schools set an application submission deadline that is 3 business days prior to the lottery date. This provides the longest possible window for families to apply to the school, while also providing a reasonable amount of time for school administrators to verify the validity of all applications to be included in the enrollment lottery.

If, by the submission deadline, a charter school has received more applications than there are seats available, the charter school must conduct a lottery to determine enrollment.

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7 If, by the submission deadline, a charter school has received fewer applications than there are seats available in the school, the school may enroll its applicants and is not required to hold a lottery. If, at a date in the future, more applications are received than there are seats available, these applications should form a waiting list kept in the order applications are received.

Data Submission

Charter schools must submit enrollment data via RIDEMAP by April 1. These April 1 estimates are used by the RIDE Office of Finance to produce budget projections for both charter schools and school districts. Then, in the October 1 census after school begins, actual enrollment will be verified.

Lottery Exemptions

Charter schools may have a policy exempting certain applicants from its lottery. These applicants are limited to: a) the children of school founders, teachers, or staff; and b) siblings of enrolled students7. No other students are permitted to enroll in charter schools outside of charter school lotteries. Please also note that these policies are voluntary; charter schools are not required to implement these exemptions in their enrollment procedures.

Children of Founders, Teachers or Staff

Charter schools may adopt policies that permit enrollment of children whose parent or guardian is a founder, teacher or staff member at the school, as long as these students constitute no more than 10% of the school’s total enrollment. Policies should clearly define each term for the purposes of

implementation, and consider parameters on this exemption. For instance, consider whether an exemption should apply to children of current and former staff alike. Also, consider whether the policy should apply to founders no longer affiliated with the school.

Siblings

Charter schools may adopt policies that exempts siblings of accepted and/or enrolled students from participation in the lottery. RIDE defines the word sibling as “one of two or more individuals having one common parent”. Two children who share a common guardian may also be considered siblings. Charter school policies should reflect the definition provided.

Siblings may not be interpreted to include members of a student’s extended family such as cousins, step-siblings, and others who, due to various circumstances, may have become part of the family unit and/or live in the same household.

Lottery Weights and Preferences

Rhode Island regulations permit charter schools to provide weights in enrollment lotteries for certain characteristics of applicants if deemed necessary to fulfill statutory requirements8. If a charter school intends to serve educationally disadvantaged students, and wishes to increase opportunities for enrollment of these students, the school may apply to RIDE to employ a weight or enrollment preference.

7_{Board of Regents Regulation C-5-2(c)} 8

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8 For the purpose of this guidance, educationally disadvantaged students are students in the categories described in section 1115(b)(2) of the ESEA, which include students who are economically

disadvantaged, students with disabilities, migrant students, limited English proficient students, neglected or delinquent students, and homeless students. Lottery weights or preferences for an individual applicant’s race or gender will not be permitted.

Requests for approval of lottery weights and preferences shall be made in the form of a letter to the Office of Charter Schools, and shall include:

 the characteristic of applicants to be weighted/preferred;

 a rationale describing how this particular charter school is well-positioned to increase educational opportunities for these students;

 a description of how the school will verify the characteristic or trait to be weighted;

 a description of the enrollment target for students with the identified characteristic;

 the specific methodology by which these students will be weighted/preferred and drawn in the lottery.

Schools with acceptable requests will be approved via a letter from RIDE. Permissions provided in an approval letter shall continue to be valid for each lottery event in the future. In cases where schools desire to revise an approved policy around weighting or preferring students, a new letter of approval, noting the revision, should be sought.

Mayoral Academies

State statute requires Mayoral Academies to enroll from “more than one city or town including both urban and non-urban communities and which offers an equal number of enrollments to students on a lottery basis; […]”9 In order to fulfill statutory obligations, Mayoral Academies must submit for approval to RIDE enrollment procedures describing how the school intends to offer an equal number of

enrollments on a lottery basis to students from both urban and non-urban communities.

Waiting Lists

In the event of a charter school lottery, all students in the lottery pool shall be drawn. Once all available seats have been filled based on the order applicants were selected, the remaining applicants in the pool must be placed on a waiting list ranked in the order that they were drawn.10

Applicants should be permitted to apply to the school at any point during the school year. In cases where these applicants apply after a lottery is held and a waiting list is already created, the new applicants should be placed at the end of the existing waiting list, in the order their applications are received.

Charter schools must maintain the current year’s waiting list through the end of the last regular day of school of the school year. After the close of the last school day of the year, waiting list results may not

9_{RIGL § 16-77.4-1} 10

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9 roll over. The next (upcoming) school year’s waiting list shall serve as the basis for enrollment offerings as spaces become available. All applicants remaining on the waiting list at the end of the current year must reapply to be included in the lottery for the upcoming school year.11

For example, if the current school year ends on June 30 and a current student departs on May 21, the school should offer an enrollment opportunity to the next student on the current school year’s waiting list. However, if the school year ends on June 30 and a charter school receives notice of a student’s intent to depart at the end of the school year (and is thus effective July 1), the vacancy should be offered to the topmost applicant on the upcoming year’s waiting list.

Backfilling

Rhode Island charter schools are expected to maintain enrollment at the levels described in their charters and approved by the Board of Education.

Notification

Applicants are to be notified in writing whether they were selected for enrollment into the charter school. Schools should establish a standard procedure for notifying applicants using multiple methods of contact. In addition, schools may establish a deadline for return correspondence from applicants, but it must provide for a response window of at least 15 days before offering up a seat to the next applicant on the waiting list.12

Invalid Applications

Charter schools should adopt procedures that guide behavior when faced with an invalid application. These procedures should include: a method of informing applicants, the timing allowance for a response, and a procedure for removing any invalid applications from the lottery pool.

School procedures should include a method for verifying each applicant’s information prior to the submission deadline, so applicants have an opportunity to correct any errors or omissions before the lottery and charter schools can respond appropriately to erroneous, incomplete, or fraudulent applications. However, policies should also consider scenarios where invalid applications are not recognized until after the lottery is held.

Enrollment Materials

To enroll into a charter school, applicants notified of an available seat should immediately confirm intent to accept the seat in the charter school via a confirmation form (to be developed and provided by the school). After an applicant notifies the school of her intent to accept, the charter school may then request detailed enrollment information, which may include:

 Registration form

 Proof of residency

 Prior academic records

11_{Board of Regents Regulations C-5-4(c)} 12

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 Special education records

 Health forms

 Home language information

 Emergency contact information

 District notification

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Appendix A: Local Aid Payments to Public Schools of Choice

The Commissioner released guidance on May 27, 2011 regarding the process for billing local districts for local aid to charter schools. Please refer to the table included in the appendix of this guidance for information regarding statewide procedures for local aid invoicing and payment.

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Appendix B: RIDE Standard Applications for Enrollment

All charter schools must use the standard enrollment application in this Appendix B. Standard charter school enrollment applications are available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. These applications may not be modified by schools unless otherwise permitted by RIDE; criteria and procedures for modifying standard enrollment applications are provided on pages 4-5 in this Lottery & Enrollment Guidance.

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RHODE ISLAND CHARTER PUBLIC SCHOOLS:

2015-16 ENROLLMENT APPLICATION

--SCHOOL NAME/CONTACT INFO/LOGO--

Student Information

Name: Date of Birth: / /

Last First Middle

Address:

Street, House/Apt # City State Zip Code

Current Grade: (mark “N/A” if not in school) Grade Applying For:

Parent/Guardian Information:

Name: Phone:

E-Mail: Relation to the Child:

Name: Phone:

E-Mail: Relation to the Child:

Additional Information:

Does the applicant have a brother or sister currently enrolled in this charter school? Yes No If yes, name of brother/sister:

Does the applicant have a brother or sister applying to this school on a separate application? Yes No If yes, name of brother/sister:

Is the applicant the child of a school founder, teacher, or staff member at this school? Yes No If yes, name of founder/teacher/staff member:

(Optional) [Additional question if approved by RIDE to increase enrollment of disadvantaged applicants] Yes No

*Applicants who [permitted characteristic] have an increased chance of acceptance into this school.

I affirm that the information contained in this application is, to my knowledge, completely true.

Parent /Guardian Signature: Date:

I agree that my child’s school records may be used for studies on the effectiveness of public charter schools. If the studies are publicized, only group data, not student level data, will be reported. Sensitive student information will remain confidential under state and federal law.

Note: Checking “No” will NOT affect your child’s chances for admission.

Yes No

SCHOOL USE ONLY

Date Received By (signature)

Please return this completed application no later than [submission deadline] to [name of school]

ADDRESS: [address]

PHONE: [phone] FAX:[fax] EMAIL: [email]

Rhode Island Charter Public Schools: Lottery & Enrollment Guidance